Whumptober Prompt 22: Hallucinations
by SaturnSpaceSquid
Summary: Very few know that Ladybug was attacked and didn't recover as quickly as expected. Many people have started noticing that Marinette isn't doing okay. Is there a way to fix Ladybug and Marinette or is Paris going to have to say goodbye to two very important people. (I based the symptoms of psychosis on personal experience).
1. Akuma Attack

"M'lady! Ladybug! Ladybug, can you hear me?" There was a loud shouting, somewhere off in the distance, somewhere far away in the darkness.

"Ladybug, I'm going to transform back soon, you have to wake up! I can't leave you, wake up!" She felt herself being lifted, it was uncomfortable, this whole situation was uncomfortable. The wind that hit her face seemed to sting, why couldn't she just sleep?

It was too uncomfortable, she had to wake up to see what was happening, it seemed important. Slowly, she cracked open her eyelids, a dark warmth around her. She rubbed her face against the black leather, suddenly aware of the figure talking to her.

"Ladybug, can you hear me? Please respond!" Marinette looked up at him and smiled.

"Hi, Chat." She said softly, both relief and worry appeared on Chat's face. "Where should I take you? I'm about to transform. She paused, smiling dazedly at the blonde superhero.

"Can't I stay with you?" Chat frowned and shook his head. "We can't know each other's identities, M'lady. You know that." Marinette just kept smiling before closing her eyes again, she felt much safer and comfier now.

"M'lady, no!" There was no response this time, Marinette felt too tired to keep her eyes open. "Putain!" Chat shouted as he stopped moving, pounding on a door.

"You're the one who runs the Ladyblog, right?" Chat shouts, panicked.

"Yes, oh my God, what happened to her?"

"There's no time to explain, I'm about to change back and I need someone to watch her while I recharge. I couldn't think of anyone else nearby to trust."

"Put her on the couch in here, you can go into the bathroom over there to recharge."

Marinette feels herself put down on something and she whimpers, reaching out slightly for Chat.

"I'll be right back, M'lady. Just stay put." She hears Chat run off as she's left alone in the darkness again. She whimpers again and feels another familiar touch.

She opens her eyes again to see a concerned Alya who is putting her hand on Marinette's forehead.

"What happened to you, Ladybug? You don't seem injured, but you don't feel sick." Alya sits next to Marinette, who immediately cuddles closer to her.

"I dunno." She mutters out, Alya looking surprised.

"Can you hear me, Ladybug?" Marinette nods slowly, feeling slightly embarrassed as she gains more consciousness, but this position feels too good to move away from right now.

Suddenly, Chat Noir runs back out, racing to her side. He smiles as he sees her looking at him.

"M'lady, you're awake." She smiles and nods slowly again.

"What happened to her? She's not feverish, and I don't see any obvious head injuries." Alya asks, still very much concerned.

"She did something kind of stupid. She jumped in front of an akumatized sentimonster. It stung her or something. She destroyed it, but collapsed afterwards and has been like this ever since."

Marinette felt her head clearing and she blushed as she realised her head was on Alya's lap. Quickly she sat up, causing everyone to protest in alarm.

"No, I'm fine, sorry, I must've just been out of it." She still kind of feels out of it, but she's trying her best not to freak anyone out more than she already has.

Chat and Alya look towards each other in worry, before returning the look to Marinette. "Are you sure you'll be okay to go home? You know I can't take you there." Marinette smiles sweetly and nods. She stands shakily and turns to Alya.

"Thank you again, Alya, for helping me out." Alya looks surprised before beaming.

"Anytime, Ladybug." Marinette nods before she walks through the door, leaving the building and yo-yoing her way back to the bakery.

Tikki looked at Marinette again, remaining quiet as she scanned her owner for the seventeenth time that hour. Marinette looked up from her sketchbook towards Tikki.

"I'm fine, Tikki. You don't need to keep worrying." Tikki looks sad.

"Marinette, you know that sentimonster shouldn't keep affecting you after you used miraculous ladybug. It's still affecting you, I can tell!" Marinette sighs and closes her sketchbook, tiredly sitting up.

"I know, Tikki, but who am I supposed to tell? I don't want to worry Master Fu, and I think I was just pushing myself too hard during the fight." Tikki sighed and nodded.

"If you keep getting worse though, I might go tell Master Fu without your permission. I care about you Marinette." Marinette smiles before hugging the kwami against her face.

"I promise, I'll be fine, Tikki."

Marinette runs into class, shooting an apologetic look towards Ms. Bustier, before sitting next to Alya. Alya looks at her in surprise.

"Girl, you've never been this late before, and honestly you don't look that good." Marinette frowns.

"Yeah, I know, it was that akuma attack. It slowed down my walk over here." Alya looks at her in confusion.

"What akuma attack? There hasn't been any akuma incident today." Now it's Marinette's turn to look confused.

"But I saw it, it was tearing apart the streets." Ms. Bustier looks up at the two and pauses.

"Girls, is something wrong?" Ms. Bustier looks at Alya's look of concern and Marinette's look of confusion. Alya looks unsure, but Marinette smiles and shakes her head dramatically.

"No! Sorry, everything's fine!" Marinette shakes her hands as she grins widely. doesn't look convinced, but she nods and continues her lesson, planning on talking to Marinette later.

Marinette is unable to focus for the rest of class as she repeats what Alya said and what she remembers. If there was no akuma attack, then what was she fighting before school? Was she fighting nothing? Do people know she's Ladybug now? Marinette felt her heart hammering in her chest as everything around her seemed to blur. Nothing made sense, she could've just been confused, but she remembers fighting an akuma, if she didn't fight then she was just being crazy in public and definitely revealed her secret identity to those in public. Marinette's head snaps up as someone steps in front of her view.

"Marinette, can you hear me?" She had been hearing this phrase a lot the past few hours. looks somewhat panicked as Marinette just stares at her. She turns her head and sees Alya still sitting there, but she notices the rest of the class is no longer there. Had she fallen asleep? No, she was thinking, but only for a few minutes, not long enough for class to end.

"Marinette." Alya squeezes Marinette's arm, her voice sounding like she's on the brink of tears. "You're really scaring us."

Marinette feels just as scared as she tries to think of what happened. She decides to go for a watery smile, which seems to only further concern the two.

"Marinette, look at me. If you don't respond, I'll have no choice but to call for help." Marinette quickly looked at Ms. Bustier and shook her head.

"I'm fine, I swear. I'm just tired!" Ms. Bustier looks to Alya.

"Would you mind leaving us for a second, Alya?" Alya looks at Marinette, before nodding. She gets up and leaves the empty classroom, Ms. Bustier walks over and sits next to Marinette.

"Marinette, do you need to talk with someone? This seems very serious. Alya told me what happened earlier and that you seemed to space out for the rest of class." Marinette looks down and nods, feeling like she's about to cry. She was so confused, why was she feeling this way?

"I'm going to call your parents and explain what happened. You'll be sent home for the rest of the day, but I'm going to ask your parents to come by to pick you up." Marinette is about to protest when Ms. Bustier stands and shakes her head. "You're a wonderful student, Marinette. You have so much responsibility in this class and sometimes I feel others may neglect the fact that you need help too. I'm guilty of that too sometimes." Ms. Bustier confesses.

Marinette stands and shakes her head. "No! You're an amazing teacher, the best I've ever had, actually. I care very much about the people in this class, that's why I help them and why I chose to run for class representative. I chose this responsibility, I promise it's not too much. I'm fine!" Marinette realises how ironic that last statement was as tears stream down her face.

Ms. Bustier smiles sadly as she pulls Marinette into a hug. "Has something happened, Marinette?" Marinette continues to cry, shaking her head. Ms. Bustier breaks the hug and pulls out a handkerchief, wiping under Marinette's eyes to get rid of the tears.

"You just need to rest today, but I'm going to suggest your parents find someone professional you can talk to." Marinette's eyes widened. Therapy was not a good idea for her, she didn't have enough time, and most of her problems come from her superhero activities, which she can't reveal to anyone. Ms. Bustier seems to notice Marinette's hesitation.

"You don't need to worry about it right now, Marinette. Let's just call your parents, and we'll figure this all out." Marinette looks down and nods, walking to the front of the room, Ms. Bustier opening a folder and dialing a number on the phone.

"Hello? This is Ms. Bustier, Marinette's teacher. Hello Mrs. Cheng, today in class Marinette seemed to be having a hard time and her friends and I were concerned. She wasn't responding for some time and I'm worried that she may be dealing with too much stress without an outlet for it. If you could come pick her up for the day I would appreciate it. Thank you, à bientôt." Ms. Bustier put down the phone and looked towards Marinette.

"They'll be here in a few minutes, I'll take you to the front of the school." Marinette nods silently as she follows Ms. Bustier to the locker rooms, grabbing her bag and then continuing to the front of the school. Shortly after her mother and father walked to the school, Sabine racing forward and hugging her.

Marinette feels like crying again as she buries her face in her mother's shoulder. Marinette spaces out a bit again as her parents talk with Ms. Bustier and then turn to her, their mouths moving, but the words not reaching her. She feels herself nodding anyways and her mother smiles, before they all begin walking out of the school and back to the bakery.


	2. Confusion

Marinette continued to look at her knees as her parents sat in front of her, both extremely concerned.

"Marinette, please talk to us. We need to understand what happened." Marinette attempted to say something, anything to explain. But really she couldn't figure out what happened.

"Maman, I just woke up really late and felt really tired. I got confused about something and I guess I fell asleep in class, that's it."

"Your teacher said you were awake and didn't respond when she talked to you." Her dad mentions. "Are you getting sick?"

Marinette wonders, it did seem like a possibility. Maybe the Sentimonster had just gotten her sick and she just had to let it run its course. Marinette nods slowly. "I think I might be."

Sabine sighs. "You should go up and rest then, no sketching or talking with Alya. You need sleep." Marinette nods as she stands, making her way to her room.

"We love you, sweetheart." Tom calls to her as she leaves. "I love you guys too." She shouts back, before entering her room.

As soon as she lays on her bed, Tikki comes out of her bag and gives her a look.

"You wouldn't respond to me today either, Marinette. I tried nudging you and whispering to you. You aren't okay, you should tell Master Fu." Marinette shakes her head.

"I'm fine, Tikki. I just need more rest after the attack yesterday." Tikki pouts, but Marinette is too tired to care. Eventually she drifts off to sleep.

"Marinette. Marinette!" A harsh whisper and a shake quickly wakes her from her slumber. She blinks in the darkness, before the shape of Chat Noir becomes clear above her. She groans, annoyed as she looks at her phone beside her bed.

"Chat, it's four, why are you here?" She whispers back. Chat gets off her bed and stands beside it, looking down expectantly.

"There's an akuma, it said it was looking to get revenge...on you." Marinette sits up, looking around.

"That doesn't make sense, what akuma?" Chat shakes his head and practically pulls her out of the bed.

"There's no time to explain, I have to get you out of here. M'lady was injured the other day, so I'm not sure if she'll show. That means it's up to me to protect you." Marinette nods, that seems to make sense, but why was an akuma after her civilian form, and why so early in the morning? Before she knew it, Chat had her in his arms and was jumping from the window, pole vaulting them through the city.

"Where exactly are you taking me, Chat?" Chat doesn't reply, he just shines a smile at her in the dark.

"Don't worry about it." This was concerning, Chat always gave her a straight answer. Something felt wrong.

"Chat, put me down." Chat just squeezes her against him in response. She started feeling scared, which caused her to begin to struggle.

"Marinette, stop!" Chat landed on top of some roof and he put her down, looking at her, annoyed. He pauses.

"I know you're Ladybug, Marinette." Marinette gasped involuntarily as Chat strode closer to her.

"I don't know what you're talking about, of course I'm not Ladybug!" Chat growled, his glowing green eyes glaring at her as he kept stepping forward.

"Stop lying to me, Marinette! I'm so sick of you keeping secrets from me! You always treat me like I'm beneath you!" He shouts as he grabs her shoulders, smirking down at her. "But now I know your biggest secret. I have the upper hand." Chat raises his left hand towards her for emphasis, before placing it on her left cheek.

"I could say it right now, M'lady. I could end you with a single word, you wouldn't even be able to avoid it." Marinette felt herself trembling as Chat kept smirking, his sharp teeth glinting like daggers in the darkened night.

"This is how it feels to be powerless, casse couille." Marinette gulped as she remained as still as possible.

"Chat, please, I'm not Ladybug. Why would you even do this to Ladybug?" Chat growled as he grabbed her shoulders again, shoving her backwards towards the edge of the roof. Marinette felt like any movement would cause her to fall to her death.

"Be careful, Mari. I know how clumsy you can be." Marinette finally felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked at her partner, or what used to be her partner. Chat's eyes widen as he looks at the door to the stairway. It swings open and there stands Hawkmoth.

Marinette is beyond terrified at this point, her heart beating in her chest, adrenaline causing her to use all her strength to punch Chat, sending him sprawling to the ground. Marinette stares as Hawkmoth approaches Chat, lifting him up effortlessly.

"Have the two heroes of Paris finally turned on each other?" Hawkmoth questions, looking at Marinette.

"I'm not Ladybug! I don't know what you're talking about!" Marinette feels herself slip and she gasps as she looks down, feeling herself falling.

Suddenly, strong arms grab her and pull her back up, not letting go even when she's safely on the roof again.

She feels faint as the adrenaline wears off, her legs shaking and causing her to sink to the ground.

"Miss? Are you alright? I'm calling an ambulance!" Marinette looks up to see that a stranger is holding her. A muscled man currently is looking at her in shock while he yells into his phone. This snaps Marinette out of her haze real quick.

Where was Hawkmoth and Chat? They were just here! She didn't imagine that! They were here! Marinette slid away from the stranger and stood, shaking her head wildly.

"No, no ambulance! Someone brought me here!" The man looks at her strangely, covering part of his phone.

"Miss, no one was up here but you. You almost tumbled off the roof." Marinette looks at the door again, the man noticing too late what Marinette was planning to do as she sprints to it, quickly opening and slamming the door shut as she practically slid down the stairs.

Before she knows it she's outside again, running full speed to who knows where, she just needs to get away from the confusion and terror she had just experienced.

Eventually she's back at the bakery, which logically should've been the first place she thought of. She doesn't have her phone on her, so she can't tell what time it is, but she's sure her parents are still asleep.

She knows she can't go in through the front door, it'll be locked. Somehow, she's going to have to climb back to her balcony. Tikki suddenly flies down next to Marinette, tears in her eyes.

"You scared me! Why did you leave without saying anything?" She whispers sadly, her tiny voice filled with distress as grabs onto Marinette. Questions keep spilling out her mouth, questions Marinette has no answers to.

"Tikki, we can't talk in the open like this, can you help me back up to my room?" Marinette interrupts. Tikki looks up at the balcony and nods, leading Marinette to a nearby alley to hide in.

"Tikki, spots on!" She whispers, seconds later her body is covered in the red and black spandex. She peeks out of the alley before yo-yoing her way up the balcony, shedding her costume as soon as she enters her room. Tikki still looks sad as she looks Marinette over.

Suddenly she flings forward and spreads her tiny arms over Marinette's shoulder in the equivalent of a hug for the tiny kwami.

"I was so worried, I woke up and you were just gone! And you didn't come back for an hour! What were you doing?" Marinette sits on her bed, a shiver going down her spine as she remembers what happened. No wait, what she _thought_ had happened.

"Tikki, Chat Noir came in here, he said he needed to protect me and he just took me out of the room. He started acting strange, and scary. He said he knew I was Ladybug, he threatened to cataclysm me! Oh Tikki, he said he was going to kill me!" Tikki rubs her knee softly as she confesses to everything that happened the last hour.

"Marinette, I think I would've sensed Plagg if Chat was here. Are you sure that's what happened?" Marinette pauses and shakes her head.

"I almost fell off a roof. I saw Hawkmoth, I _punched_ Chat!" She looks down at her fist, noticing the swollen knuckles and scraped skin. "But when I almost fell, there a stranger who helped me. Hawkmoth and Chat disappeared." Tikki remains silent for a moment.

"Maybe you should get some more sleep, Marinette. You have to get up for school in a little bit." Marinette nods, knowing that Tikki doesn't know what's happening and she's avoiding it.

"Don't tell Master Fu yet." She mumbles before laying on her bed. Tikki nods silently, regretting it.

Thirty minutes later her alarm goes off. Marinette groans dramatically as she turns off her alarm and tosses her phone to the end of her bed.

Tikki giggles at the familiar sight as she begins poking Marinette's cheek. "You have to wake up, you have to show Alya and Ms. Bustier that you're okay." Marinette rolls onto her back, her arms stretched out from her sides.

"Fineeee." She says, getting out of bed and getting dressed. She walks downstairs to grab a quick breakfast and is met with the happy faces of her parents.

"Bonjour, mon cœur!" Tom greets, looking at Marinette expectantly.

"Bonjour, Papa." Marinette responds, hugging her father, before her mother joins in, both clinging to her a little too tightly.

"Did you sleep well?" Sabine asks Marinette as the group breaks apart. Marinette nods happily, showing a genuine smile.

"I think I was just feeling super tired yesterday, but I'm all good to go now!" Marinette worries she may be pushing it a little too much. Her parents look at each other, worried.

"Well if you say you're feeling okay, then we have to trust you. But if you start to feel bad again, do you promise to call us?" Sabine asks. Marinette's overly wide grin softens and she nods. Sabine smiles at this and hands Marinette a chocolate croissant.

"Hurry up, you don't want to be late." Marinette chuckles at that as she leaves the bakery, eating her breakfast along the way.

Marinette sits next to Alya, on time for once. Alya scans Marinette as everyone before has done and then shakes her head.

"Girl, you're on time today. Now I'm really worried." Marinette lightly elbows Alya who laughs at the gesture. Ms. Bustier walks in, her eyes immediately turning to Marinette. She waves her hand towards her, telling Marinette to go see her.

Marinette stands and walks to the front, feeling somewhat nervous. Ms. Bustier walks to her and hugs her.

"You seem to be doing better." Ms. Bustier comments as she pulls away, Marinette nodding. "If you need anything, just let me know." Marinette thanks her before heading back to her seat, Alya grinning at her.

Marinette opens her eyes. Wait, opens her eyes? She looks around, surrounded by darkness. No, wait, this doesn't make any sense. Is it happening again?

She gets up from the ground, looking around in the vast darkness. The terror comes quicker this time than usual, she's already expecting this incident to get worse.

"Marinette…" Marinette spins around, trying to find the source of the voice. It felt wrong, scared, tortured. She didn't like it one bit.

"Marinette, help me…" That was Alya, or maybe it wasn't, was this even real? "Marinette…" Marinette listens to the voice and begins running towards where she thinks the sound is coming from.

Out of nowhere, she sees her. She's on her knees, Chat standing next to her, his right hand on the back of her neck. Alya starts crying as she stares at Marinette, pleading.

"M'lady, nice of you to finally join the party." Chat's voice seems to surround her in the dark. The words both echoing and compressed. It caused her to visibly shake.

"Chat, what are you doing? Let her go." Chat just stares, unblinking, before he opens his mouth in a cruel smirk.

"Catacly-"

"NO CHAT!" Marinette rushes forward, but it's too late. Smoke rises from Alya's neck and her eyes look forward, a shocked expression on her face as her brown irises fade to a milky white. Chat pushes her forward, Alya twitches as she sinks downwards, more smoke emitting from her skin as it begins to resemble charcoal, her body slowly crumbling away into a pile of ash and bone.

Marinette pushes Chat backwards, before running forwards again, her feet seeming to take her no where as she continues to watch her best friend die from the affects of her partner's power.

She can almost reach her, she just has to touch her, then she can confirm this is all a dream. A few more steps, three, two, one-

Marinette gasps as the images dissolve, all matter dissolves, and she's falling in the dark abyss.

_Crack!_


End file.
